Adult teeth coming in crooked??

[kirbsam]

Well...remember, her face is going to get bigger along with her jaw. So I really wouldn't be concerned with this. And...just don't let an orthodontist see her! My mom got sucked into ortho stuff when I was 9, and he made all sorts of pronouncements and I ended up in braces a couple years later. And once I became an adult, my jaw was bigger than when I was a teen, and now I have room in the back of my jaw that I didn't before. So great I had those teeth pulled and dealt with all that pain, right?


DS is getting his first permanent molar right now, and two teeth are loose, so I've been looking up dentition charts. That first adult molar comes in at the back, then teeth in front of the molars start getting "replaced", and then slowly the back molar comes in, and of course there are also the wisdom teeth which no dentist allows to just stay anymore...

The point is, the mouth's setup is kind of genius, how those molars come in and hold the place for the changes on the way!

So I wouldn't mess with it (and we're not planning on messing with it for DS)!

If you start getting too worried about life without "perfect" teeth, go watch Chuck, and see how incredibly gorgeous the main female star is, despite (or because of) having slightly twisty (and awesome) teeth. I can't imagine her being *that* pretty with teeth that have been "hollywooded", and hope no producer ever talks her into "fixing" them.

I'm sure your girl will be fine. She will grow and her teeth will have room to move around.

the mouth is set up kind of genius like. i will agree with that, but the rest of your post is filled with bad information. you are obviously way out of your league here, and i think you should refrain from commenting on things that you really know nothing about. your advice is poor and potentially damaging for the kid.

 

[luvmy3]

My teeth were so crooked that I wore braces for 12 years; I started going to an orthodontist at 6. I still wear permanent retainers and I'm 53 now.

Thank goodness my parents did worry enough to take me at 6 to get started on the process. I had some serious issues that would have been compounded had they waited.

You wore braces for 12 years, thats crazy.

I don't know of very many adults who didn't have some crooked teeth in their youth. When I was a kid you didn't get braces unless your dad was making big bucks. So in my little hometown everybody had crooked teeth, buck teeth, overbites, underbites. We all looked pretty inbred. Today it's different. Orthodontia is more affordable and more available.
Both of my older kids have had a ton of orthodontic work. DD16 has had braces TWICE. About $10,000 worth. She takes excellent care of her teeth and wears her retainer every night. Her teeth are beautiful. I'm so glad that we had dental insurance to help with the cost of repairing her smile. DS23 wore an appliance to spread his palate which would eventually allow all his teeth to come in. He also wore braces. Over$5000 in his mouth. Unfortunately, he was very non-compliant with treatment and he dumped the retainer when he got the braces off. Now at age 23 his teeth are looking pretty uneven, like he never even had braces.

Not to everyone, some are just extremely lucky to have good insurance or be able to pay for it. For some it is a financial hardship.

 

[nuke]

My son is 12. As a small child he had the most beautiful perfectly spaced little baby teeth.
As soon as those suckers fell out and the adult teeth came in. Whoa they were bad. He had a horrible overbite that we could not let go. If you let an overbite go too long the bottom teeth keep growing and can cut into the roof of your mouth. That's dangerous, not cosmetic. Plus he really was getting a complex about how his teeth looked.

He's had braces sinces last May. He had two loose baby teeth and two adult teeth pulled. You can not even tell he had an overbite and his teeth already look perfect. His ortho calls him a miracle patient. He will probably have the braces for another year or so just to make sure everything stays and then a retainer until he's fully grown.
Well worth the money out of pocket to give my kid nice teeth.

 

[tlens]

The OP got some great advice here, except for Bumbershoot but that's par for the course with her.

I had braces twice. Once as a young teen adn then I had my wisdom teeth removed and my bottom teeth mvoed slightly and the one bottom tooth moved backwards. I had them put on again on the bottom to correct was was just a cosmetic thing at that time. (The first time with braces corrected the jaw issues I had).

I will get them for my daughter if she needs them. Apparently she has something, not an overbite, I can't remember the term they used, but no one has yet mentioned braces about it. Her teeth are straight (except for one that's slightly crooked). She wants braces. lol I hope she doesn't need them but if she does, i'll be there with checkbook open to pay for them.

 

[december]

My dentist insisted I needed braces as a child, but my mother said no way! My top teeth are perfectly straight, my bottom teeth are crooked, but no one ever sees them anyway!

Ds12's teeth came in like mine. Dd10's 2 front teeth came in with a huge gap and pointed out! She had such a pretty smile with her baby teeth, but was so teased with her permanent teeth that she quit smiling completely for pics. Kids are mean, and some adults aren't much better. I took her for a consult at 8, never dreaming that she could get braces that early. The ortho put them on 2 weeks later, and at 9 she got them off. She has a beautiful smile now, and was herself again! She wore the retainer religiously for 6 mos, and now only has to wear it at night. She knows how different she looks, so I don't have any problems with making her wear it.

My insurance didn't cover it, but the ortho financed the $2000 over the 10 months she wore the braces. He doesn't think she'll need more work done-only her 2 front teeth were affected-but if she does he will deduct the $2000 from the price of the new braces. Best $2000 I ever spent.

Looks aren't everything, but I do think it is my job as a parent to make sure my child has every opportunity possible. Bad teeth, not crooked but really bad, will hold a person back.

OP, I'd get a consult and see what an ortho has to say.

Her smile now:

Her smile at 8:

 

[Scurvy]

OP, I'm glad you decided to ask about having the orthodontist check her out. While she might be too young for braces now, it's certainly better to ask their opinion now than to wish later that you had let them check her out while she was still young.

I actually had braces from third grade through ninth grade. It made a world of difference to me; my teeth were so crooked that I was teased often until I had the braces. Having said that, I have to sort of agree with Bumbershoot about one thing. (This is the second time I've agreed with her about health related issues lately, which shocks me because we usually couldn't be further apart on our views of that sort of thing!) I would be concerned if a dentist wanted to pull many adult teeth from a child's mouth. It is easier (and quicker) to get the teeth straight if you pull some, which may be why some orthos are so ready to suggest pulling the teeth even when it isn't really necessary. There were two good orthodontists where I grew up. One really liked to pull teeth - he suggested pulling several of mine. Everyone I knew who went to him had several teeth pulled. The other one said I might need one or two of my lower teeth pulled for my teeth to be completely straight, but that it wasn't absolutely necessary. I didn't have any pulled, and now my teeth are straight with the exception of one slightly crooked lower tooth. Children's mouths are smaller than adult's mouths, and teeth you might think need to be pulled end up having enough room in a fully grown mouth. I personally wouldn't let an orthodontist pull any of my child's teeth without getting another opinion first.

 

[AKL_Megs]

FWIW, when I was 6, my teeth came in SUPER crooked. I had straight up snaggle teeth.

I am now 27 and have teeth that my dentist STILL can't believe never saw braces or a retainer. Every time I see him, he asks and says, "Did you ever have braces? Are you sure? Because you have a nice smile."

AND, I sucked my thumb until I was TEN!

Don't worry to much about it. We get teeth for our adult heads when our heads and jaws are 1/2 the size. You grow into them!



Me at 7...

Me last April...

 

[minkydog]

Not to everyone, some are just extremely lucky to have good insurance or be able to pay for it. For some it is a financial hardship.

Oh, I totally get that. It was a hardship on us too, and we had some insurance. Incidently, dental insurance only pays about $1000 of it. We had to take loans to cover the rest. During those years we didn't go to Disney World, drove old cars,took vacations at Grandma's house, and grew our own vegetables. And most of that time my husband was the only one working regularly!

For my kids, there was no way they could NOT have their teeth straightened. Both of them have that high arched hard palate which made their mouths very narrow. If they had not have some expanders and braces both of them would likely have needed teeth pulled. Braces improved the crowding drastically. I have never regretted taking on debt to fix my kids' teeth. IMO, it was a medical necessity which could prevent them from experiencing dental caries and tooth loss in the future.

 

[golfgal]

I have to totally disagree with you. Big time.

My son just got his braces off - at 14.5 (got them when he was mayyyybe 12-ish??) Anyways.... I had waited, as he still had baby teeth. I (mistakingly) assumed we should wait until he had all his adult teeth.

Well, by age 12, he still had baby teeth - I went to the Ortho for the consultation thinking we'd be able to get things rolling. With crooked top teeth, and a slight underbite, no big deal. Right? Wrong....

Had I brought him in at age 8, 9, 10 - whatever - they could have intervened with the underbite. Not at 12. He's looking at jaw surgery when he's 'done growing', if he wants his underbite - fixed.

Apparently the bottom jaw continues to grow - not the top. Had we intervened while that bone is still soft (i.e. 8,9,10 - whatever) they could have held that jaw back, while expanding the top, making them line up correctly.

So now he has a gorgeous stunning top jaw. Perfect! And when he smiles, this is all you see - but that being said, he has an underbite! And if he chooses, as an adult, to line these teeth up - they have to break his jaw, saw down bone, and move it back.

I'd see an ortho now, and see what they say. The thought of my 'baby' having to have a surgery like that, even as an adult is a scary thought.

ETA - #1 - he STILL has baby teeth, so I would have been waiting a loooong time and #2 - unaligned jaws and teeth can cause headaches, too. I'd do it now.

One more ETA - Danny didn't have to have any teeth pulled. And he had a smalllllll top palette. They did a palette extender, and it worked just fine.


.

CR--I had a SERIOUS underbite growing up. I was supposed to have the jaw surgery in 7th grade but for some reason I did not. When I was in high school our then dentist gave me a bionator that stretched my jaw out and created bone growth to fix the issue. Had I done it earlier it wouldn't have taken much time but I wore that thing for 2 years and now my lower jaw is where it should be. I would do some research on that. Seeing as I have high school aged kids myself now, it's been a LONG time since I had that thing and my jaw is still where it should be.

 

[aprilgail2]

Oh, I totally get that. It was a hardship on us too, and we had some insurance. Incidently, dental insurance only pays about $1000 of it. We had to take loans to cover the rest. During those years we didn't go to Disney World, drove old cars,took vacations at Grandma's house, and grew our own vegetables. And most of that time my husband was the only one working regularly!

.

My insurance covered 2000 of the 6000- I was lucky enough to have won a raffle prize at a local wellness fair and I had a choice between a 1000.00 gift certificate to the orthodontist or a day at the spa for me....I grabbed that ortho gift certificate so fast LOL... Most orthodontists around here put you on a monthly payment plan but I ended up making a deal where I paid 1600.00 last Jan and 1600.00 this Jan....I used my flexible spending account at work so it came out of my pay weekly before taxes putting me in a lower tax bracket so less tax was taken out of my pay. Every Jan the wholes years worth of flex spending money for medical is put into your account so I just paid the first week of Jan both years. Next year I will go down to putting only 1500 in there for basic medical expenses for the year rather than the 3000+ I have put in for the past 2 years.

 

[mjkacmom]

You wore braces for 12 years, thats crazy.



Not to everyone, some are just extremely lucky to have good insurance or be able to pay for it. For some it is a financial hardship.

From what I've learned, most insurance will cover $1000 - $1500, and braces run from $4000 - $7000. I have 5 kids who will get braces, it is a financial hardship, and we will pay for it. We will give up things like vacations, new cars, eating out, etc., for braces. It is that high on the list. Between braces and college, we will never retire!

 

[BCDisneyFanatic]

You know, I put off taking my two DDs to the ortho because I thought all this work being done on young kids was ridiculous, and that surely we could wait until their permanent teeth came in before we needed to worry about it. DD#1 had beautiful permanent teeth, while DD#2's permanent teeth were coming in every which way.

Well, I took DD #1 when she was 11. I knew she had a cross-bite from our old dentist, but she hadn't recommended doing anything about it. Our new dentist took one look and sent us straight away to the ortho. She was quite mad on my behalf that we hadn't been sent for treatment earlier. I found out that cross-bites are easy to fix at a young age, but require surgery if not treated before the age of 12. The ortho had her in a palate expander in less than a week, and thankfully( since DD is a late-bloomer), the treatment worked and we were able to correct the problem without surgery (the whole process will take six months). Total cost? $1200. I can just imagine the bill if we'd waited one more year.

DD8 was another story. I knew she had lots of crowding...when her two top front teeth came in, they knocked out all four of her front baby teeth because they were so large. Her second set of top and bottom front teeth were coming in sideways due to lack of room. The ortho sent her for an x-ray, and called us at home as soon as she got the results. Because of the crowding, her four permanent eye teeth were growing sideways and were possibly cutting into the roots of her front teeth (which would cause them to die). She sent us immediately for a ct scan, and we were happy to find that although it was very, very close, the roots were still intact. She sent us to the dentist, and DD8 had 8 baby teeth pulled that day (all four eye teeth and the bicuspids/premolars next to them). Poor kid...she lost 1/3 of her teeth in one day (trust me, though, the tooth fairy was very, very generous!)

We are now waiting and seeing if her eye teeth will straighten out. She's to go for another x-ray in the next couple of weeks, and we are keeping our fingers crossed that the roots are still okay. The ortho said if we'd waited another two months, it likely would have been too late for those teeth. Cost for DD#2: $0 to the orthodontist ($75 for each tooth pulled to the dentist, and the cost of the x-ray, though). Next evaluation will be $50.

So, after that long story, my recommendation is the same as (most) of the other posters. Get your child evaluated by the orthodontist. Consultations are usually free, and early intervention, if necessary, might save you a lot of heartache down the road.

 

[CathrynRose]

CR--I had a SERIOUS underbite growing up. I was supposed to have the jaw surgery in 7th grade but for some reason I did not. When I was in high school our then dentist gave me a bionator that stretched my jaw out and created bone growth to fix the issue. Had I done it earlier it wouldn't have taken much time but I wore that thing for 2 years and now my lower jaw is where it should be. I would do some research on that. Seeing as I have high school aged kids myself now, it's been a LONG time since I had that thing and my jaw is still where it should be.

Geez - I went to 2 Ortho's and neither mentioned this.

I briefly Googled, and thank you, already.

Im going to make some calls this week. Thanks!

 

[N&B'smom]

Just a little update, I spoke with our ortho and my DD is going to go in when my DS10 does in July. That way they will check her all out and we will see if anything needs to be done sooner rather than later.